Author: admin

• The Extraordinary "Disco Ball" Now Orbiting Earth

  A mirror ball–the most perfect test particle ever placed in orbit–should help Italian scientists measure an exotic effect predicted by general relativity

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• The Quantified Brain of a Self-Tracking Neuroscientist

  A neuroscientist is getting a brain scan twice every week for a year to try to see how neural networks behave over time.

  Russell Poldrack, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin, is undertaking some intense introspection. Every day, he tracks his mood and mental state, what he ate, and how much time he spent outdoors. Twice a week, he gets his brain scanned in an MRI machine. And once a week, he has his blood drawn so that it can be analyzed for hormones and gene activity levels. Poldrack plans to gather a year’s worth of brain and body data to answer an unexplored question in the neuroscience community: how do brain networks behave and change over a year?

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Stories from Around the Web (Week Ending May 31, 2013)

  A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.

  Anatomy of a Hack: How Crackers Ransack Passwords
  This is exceptionally geeky but smartly done, because it shows in a memorable way how passwords get cracked. 
  —Brian Bergstein, deputy editor

  
  
  
  
  
  

• How Better Place Came to a Bitter End

  A battery-swapping startup’s innovative system for charging electric vehicles suffered from overreach and limited consumer demand.

  Better Place, which raised some $850 million to build a charging infrastructure for electric cars, said this week it will liquidate its assets after failing to find more financing. It’s the end to a bold effort to wean the world from oil by innovating with software and business models, rather than with electric vehicle technology itself.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• The Dictatorship of Data

  Robert McNamara epitomizes the hyper-rational executive led astray by numbers.

  Big data is poised to transform society, from how we diagnose illness to how we educate children, even making it possible for a car to drive itself. Information is emerging as a new economic input, a vital resource. Companies, governments, and even individuals will be measuring and optimizing everything possible.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Tesla's Superchargers Matter Only Because It Already Sells a Car People Want

  Better Place got it wrong: First make a car that people want, then build infrastructure to let them drive it cross-country.

  Tesla Motors, whose stock price has soared in recent weeks after a series of positive announcements, once again made news today with details of its plan to extend and upgrade the performance of its fast-charger network. Within a year, the network will allow drivers to travel cross-country in the company’s electric Model S, stopping every few hours for a 30-minute charge that adds 200 miles of range to the vehicle. Tesla has doubled the rate at which it’s building its fast-charger stations and, by upgrading the charging technology, cut charging times in half. Within a year, well-travelled corridors will have fast charge stations every 80 miles or so, close enough to avoid the sort of problems that arose during a recent test-drive of Tesla’s current charging system, in which a New York Times reviewer ran of battery power during a poorly planned trip. If the network proceeds as planned, it will go a long way to addressing one of the key issues with electric cars—their limited range.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending May 31, 2013)

  Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Does Motorola’s X Phone Pack a Better Battery?

  The Moto X phone will constantly monitor its position, motion, and more to track its owner’s activity. Will its battery life suffer?

  Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside spoke yesterday at the D11 conference about an upcoming smartphone called the Moto X that constantly uses its onboard sensors to figure out where it is and what its owner is doing. He didn’t fully explain how Motorola can do that without reducing the device’s battery life to less than that of smartphones that don’t try to follow their owner’s context, though.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Are Your Grades Written in Your Genes?

  A large genetic study finds gene variants with a subtle effect on scholastic achievement.

  A study published on Thursday in Science reports that certain gene variants can affect how long someone stays in school.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Gigapixel Holographic Microscope Made From A4 Paper Scanner

  The A4 digital scanner gathering dust under your desk could find new life as a gigapixel holographic microscope, say Japanese engineers who have constructed one at minimal cost

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Grasping for Ways to Capture Carbon Dioxide on the Cheap

  Wind and solar get all the attention, but a key path to lowering emissions involves finding a less expensive way to do carbon capture.

  Last week, the new U.S. secretary of energy, Ernest Moniz, pledged to continue his predecessor’s work in making the Department of Energy a “center of innovation,” while also highlighting projects he thought deserved more attention. Near the top of his list is a renewed emphasis on carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), a technology that could prove vital to combating climate change, but is developing far too slowly, according to the International Energy Agency.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• The Latest Artificial Heart: Part Cow, Part Machine

  A French company is preparing to test a complex artificial heart that combines biology with machinery.

  A new kind of artificial heart that combines synthetic and biological materials as well as sensors and software to detect a patient’s level of exertion and adjust output accordingly is to be tested in patients at four cardiac surgery centers in Europe and the Middle East. If the “bioprosthetic” device, made by the Paris-based Carmat, proves to be safe and effective, it could be given to patients waiting for a heart transplant. Currently, only one fully artificial heart, made by Tucson, Arizona-based SynCardia, has U.S., Canadian, and European regulatory approval for use in patients.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Life and Death of Tweets Not so Random After All

  Researchers have created a model to quickly predict how many times a tweet will be retweeted.

  For many people that use Twitter–myself included–it’s impossible to tell which carefully crafted tweets will be endlessly retweeted, and which ones will fade after their original posting. As it turns out, though, you can predict how popular a tweet will be, and this knowledge could be pretty useful.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Internet’s Annual Report Card Shows China’s Rise

  The latest version of venture capitalist Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report arrived this morning, and some of the most interesting of her 117 slides are about the scale and growth of Internet use and businesses in China.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Physicists Unveil World's Most Precise Clock (And a Twin to Compare It Against)

  A pair of clocks that lose only one “tick” in 10^18 “tocks” have been unveiled by an international team of physicists

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Wanted for the Internet of Things: Ant-Sized Computers

  A computer two millimeters square is the start of an effort to make chips that can put computer power just about anywhere for the vaunted “Internet of Things.”

   

  
  
  
  
  
  

• A Tiny Cell-Phone Transmitter Takes Root in Rural Africa

  Rural areas could benefit greatly from a rugged outdoor base station.

  Worldwide, at least a billion people don’t have access to cellular communications because they lack electricity to run traditional transmitters and receivers. A new low-power cellular base station being rolled out in Zambia could bring connectivity to some of those people.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Data Won the U.S. Election. Now Can It Save the World?

  Data scientist Rayid Ghani helped persuade voters to reëlect President Obama. Now he’s using big data to create a groundswell of social good.

  As chief scientist for President Obama’s reëlection effort, Rayid Ghani helped revolutionize the use of data in politics. During the final 18 months of the campaign, he joined a sprawling team of data and software experts who sifted, collated, and combined dozens of pieces of information on each registered U.S. voter to discover patterns that let them target fund-raising appeals and ads.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Trained on Jeopardy, Watson Is Headed for Your Pocket

  The software that obliterated human champions on Jeopardy will now be talking to customers of banks and other companies through websites and mobile apps.

  Watson, the IBM computer system that attracted millions of viewers when it defeated two Jeopardy champions handily in 2011, is finally going to meet its public.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Metals Become Molecular-Like at the Atomic Scale, Reveal Materials Scientists

  Atomic force measurements show that the bond between two gold atoms is highly directional and molecular-like, a finding with significant implications for the design and construction of atomic-scale devices

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• All Data Packets Are Equal—Some More than Others

  New pricing schemes, content deals, and technologies are challenging net neutrality.

  This fall, Verizon will try to persuade a federal judge to throw out U.S. Federal Communications Commission regulations requiring “net neutrality”—the idea that all content and applications must get similar treatment on wired and wireless networks.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• The Machine-Readable Workforce

  Companies are analyzing more data to guide how they hire, recruit, and promote their employees.

  Xerox is screening tens of thousands of applicants for low-wage jobs in its call centers using software from a startup company called Evolv that automatically compares job seekers against a computer profile of the ideal candidate.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week Ending 25 May 2013)

  The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server

  Computational Diagnosis of Canine Lymphoma

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Fuel Cells Could Offer Cheap Carbon-Dioxide Storage

  A new type of fuel cell could make CO2 storage cheaper, but it could also prove to be a good way to pump more oil out of the ground.

  The electrochemical reactions that occur inside fuel cells to generate electricity could provide a cheap way to selectively remove carbon dioxide from the exhaust gases of fossil-fuel power plants. The same reactions could concentrate the carbon dioxide, allowing it to be stored underground. The fuel cell could also be used to generate electricity, providing revenue to offset its cost.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Now Television Advertisers Know You're Tweeting

  If you tweet about a TV show or its ads, don’t be surprised if the advertisers “sponsored tweet” you back.

  People love to tweet about television shows they are watching; this much, we know. But now the analytics technologies are producing the payback: televsion advertisers will find out and tweet them back.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Stories from Around the Web (Week Ending May 24, 2013)

  A roundup of the most interesting stories from other sites, collected by the staff at MIT Technology Review.

  Inside Google’s Secret Lab
  A bit light on detail and insight, but they got more out of Google than anyone else has.
  —Tom Simonite, IT editor

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending May 24, 2013)

  Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Marketing to the Big Data Inside Us

  In your DNA are clues to your health, your ancestry, and maybe even your purchasing preferences.

  Companies market to you according to your shopping habits, your age, your salary, and your social-media activities. In the future, they may be able to advertise to you on the basis of your DNA.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Teens’ Coded Language is Latest Challenge for Facebook's Ad Algorithms

  Most teenagers deliberately hide what they are really talking about on Facebook – a practice that could make it harder to pitch ads at them.

   

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Next-Generation Consumer <br>3-D Printer Arrives, but a Lawsuit Looms

  Formlabs is bringing down the costs of a better 3-D printing technique, but it must survive a patent lawsuit.

  Desktop 3-D printers are about to become available with higher-definition capabilities, with a new startup shipping its first model this month.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Material That Sorts Molecules by Shape Could Lower the Price of Gas

  A hydrocarbon-sorting material could replace energy-intensive oil refining steps.

  A new material that sorts hydrocarbon molecules by shape could lower the cost of gasoline and also make the fuel safer by reducing the need for certain additives that have been linked to cancer, according to a paper in the next issue of the journal Science.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• An Interplanetary GPS Using Pulsar Signals

  Spacecraft could determine their position anywhere in the Solar System to within 5 kilometres using signals from x-ray pulsars, say astronomers

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Tesla Wires Half a Billion Dollars to the Government

  Tesla Motors’ loan repayment is a bright spot for the DOE loan program.

  Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted it would happen, and now it’s happened. Tesla, the electric car maker, has paid off the DOE loan that allowed it to build a factory and start building and selling its Model S electric car. And it’s done so nine years ahead of schedule, according to the company (see “Musk Says Tesla Will Pay Off Its Loans in Half the Time”).

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Bitcoin Hits the Big Time, to the Regret of Some Early Boosters

  The first major conference for the digital currency suggests it is gaining legitimacy, but in a manner disappointing to some early enthusiasts.

  This past Sunday, Doug Scribner took out five $100 bills and began feeding them into what looked like a small, white ATM in San Jose Conference Center in California. The machine swallowed the bills smartly and credited him with an equivalent value in bitcoins, an intangible, digital currency that is backed by not gold or any government, but by math.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• In a Data Deluge, Companies Seek to Fill a New Role

  A job invented in Silicon Valley is going mainstream as more industries try to gain an edge from big data.

  The job description “data scientist” didn’t exist five years ago. No one advertised for an expert in data science, and you couldn’t go to school to specialize in the field. Today, companies are fighting to recruit these specialists, courses on how to become one are popping up at many universities, and the Harvard Business Review even proclaimed that data scientist is the “sexiest” job of the 21st century.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• What 5G Will Be: Crazy-Fast Wireless Tested in New York City

  Samsung’s technology for ultrafast data speeds currently requires a truckload of equipment.

  The world’s biggest cell-phone maker, Samsung, caused a stir last week by announcing an ultrafast wireless technology that it unofficially dubbed “5G.” And the technology has, in fact, been tested on the streets of New York.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• The Phosphorous Atom Quantum Computing Machine

  An Australian team unveils the fundamental building block of a scalable quantum computer that could be embedded in today’s silicon chips.

  Back in the late 90s, a physicist in Australia put forward a design for a quantum computer. Bruce Kane suggested that phosphorus atoms embedded in silicon would be the ideal way to store and manipulate quantum information.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• How Apple Avoids Taxes through R&D Spending

  In Washington, CEO Tim Cook defended Apple’s R&D cost-sharing arrangements.

  Apple CEO Tim Cook came under fire in Washington today at a U.S. Senate hearing focused on the elaborate strategies Apple used to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in corporate taxes. 

  
  
  
  
  
  

• What Will Hackers Do with the New Kinect?

  Upgraded robot vision will be just one of the uses for the new version of Microsoft’s gesture control camera.

  Microsoft announced a new version of the Xbox One today, and with it an improved and essentially reinvented version of Kinect, the company’s body- and gesture-control sensor. That bodes well for Xbox gamers, but also for the community of hackers that have found so many original uses for the first Kinect, from robot vision to 3-D doodling (see “Hackers Take the Kinect to New Levels”). It seems likely that a new wave of Kinect hacking activity will begin as soon as the new device becomes available.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Playing the Odds on Tornado Warnings

  Pinpoint predictions are a long way off, but taking daily odds into account might help make the public more alert.

  The devastation in Moore, Oklahoma, shows the limits of sensing, modeling, and warning technologies. While some technologies promise somewhat more accurate hurricane tracks and thus sharper evacuation orders (see “A Model for Hurricane Evacuation”), tornado warnings are another story altogether (see “The Limits of Tornado Predictions”). 

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• How The Great Firewall of China Shapes Chinese Surfing Habits

  Can cultural factors be more important than censorship in shaping Chinese surfing habits? Two researchers argue that a new study of the way global websites cluster together supports this idea

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Home Tweet Home: A House with Its Own Voice on Twitter

  A techie’s San Francisco home has its own Twitter feed. Will yours be next?

  At first glance, you’d never guess there’s anything unusual about Tom Coates’s San Francisco home. Nestled at the end of a narrow passageway on a side street, it’s a peaceful, sunny house decorated with modern furniture and bright posters that say things like “Machines help us work” and “Make your own path.”

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Clawing From the Wreckage of Nokia Research

  Jolla Mobile, formed by Nokia refugees, launches a phone with interchangable back-panels and the Sailfish OS

  Almost one year after Nokia’s bloodletting, in which it cut 10,000 jobs and closed research and manufacturing facilities (see “Nokia Forced to Take Drastic Measures”), we’re starting to see new fruits of the startup culture that rose from the wreckage. 

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Second Life Founder's New Virtual World Uses Body Tracking Hardware

  Hardware that tracks your head, eyes and hands will make the follow up to Second Life very different to the pioneering virtual world.

  The founder of once-popular virtual world Second Life, Philip Rosedale, is working on a new 3D digital world that looks like it will be operated using gestures and body-tracking hardware. Rosedale declined to talk about his new company, called High Fidelity, just yet. But videos and other material posted online by the company suggest it is working on an impressively immersive virtual reality experience where you control an avatar using head and hand movements.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Exxon Takes Algae Fuel Back to the Drawing Board

  A $300 million project seems to have failed to produce a cheap way to make fuel from algae.

  In 2009, ExxonMobil announced that it would pay Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics up to $300 million to develop algae-based fuels.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Digest powered by RSS Digest